Extract – Author’s Note

Set in the aftermath of World War II, The Folks at Fifty-Eight is a Faustian tale offering all the lust, violent death, intrigue, suspense and pace you might reasonably expect from a conventional espionage thriller.
Here you will find former OSS agent and handsome archetypal loner-hero, Gerald Hammond, estranged from his wife, socially outcast and haunted by the guilt of so many deadly sins committed.
In keeping with many examples of the genre, you will also find a femme fatale in the guise of young, beautiful, mercurial and utterly amoral Catherine Schmidt.
Within these pages lurk the glamorous and ugly, misguided and devious, patriots, traitors, shameless hedonists, evil manipulators, erotic sirens and sadistic killers.
So, all straightforward adult thriller stuff then. . .
Or is it?
Perhaps I should also mention that this tale was inspired by actual characters and events of the time.
I leave you to draw whatever lines you deem appropriate between fact and fiction, historic event and later interpretation, innocent mistake and sinister conspiracy.
Enjoy.